Fish Detection
Satellite fish detection & fisheries analytics
Overview
Satellite-data fish detection and fishing-zone advisories from a data-science firm supported by the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. Fuses earth and space data to guide fleets to productive waters, monitor unregulated fishing and deliver bait-to-plate traceability.
Fish detection from space: advisories that make fleets profitable and fisheries sustainable, with no major-power strings.
Capabilities
- Satellite-driven fish detection and fishing-zone advisories: data from earth and data from space, analysed together
- Guides fishing fleets to productive waters, cutting wasted days at sea and improving catch profitability
- Monitoring, control and tracking of unregulated and unsustainable fishing across national waters
- Bait-to-plate traceability: seafood buyers get quality assurance, supply-chain guarantee and full provenance
- Delivered as a mobile application fishermen download and use directly at sea
- Built by a specialist team of data scientists, GIS analysts and data architects who pioneered data science in fisheries
Specifications
| Type | Satellite data analytics |
| Outputs | Fishing-zone advisories / unregulated-fishing monitoring / traceability |
| Delivery | Mobile app for fishing fleets |
| Backing | UN WFP / European Space Agency / World Bank |
| Origin | Independent / non-aligned |
In depth
Advisories built from earth and space data
The service analyses earth data and space data together to produce fishing-zone advisories. Those advisories guide fleets toward productive waters, reducing wasted days at sea and supporting catch profitability. The output is not a general statement about the ocean. It is a practical location-based aid delivered to the people deciding where to fish. The advisory joins the data-science capability to a fleet decision: where a vessel should look for productive water rather than spending days searching without guidance.
One service for fleets and authorities
The same fisheries analytics monitor, control and track unregulated and unsustainable fishing across national waters. This is a standing monitoring function, not just a one-off detection. The service also includes bait-to-plate traceability, giving seafood buyers a quality-assurance, supply-chain and provenance record alongside the operational advice given to fleets. The two uses address different points in the fishery. Monitoring concerns activity in national waters, while traceability follows seafood into the supply chain. Both are delivered from the same satellite-data fisheries capability.
Used directly at sea
Delivery is through a mobile application that fishermen download and use directly at sea. That makes the advisory an operating tool for the fleet rather than a report that must be interpreted by a separate office before a vessel can act. The application delivery sits alongside the monitoring and traceability outputs, so the service covers both the decision about where to fish and the record of what enters the supply chain. The direct mobile channel is part of the product definition, not an assumption about how a fleet might consume an analytics service.
A fisheries data-science capability
The capability is built by a specialist team of data scientists, GIS analysts and data architects who pioneered data science in fisheries. It is supported by the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. The service combines that specialist analysis with mobile delivery, unregulated-fishing monitoring and bait-to-plate traceability. The stated backing relationships span food-programme, space and development institutions. The product remains a fisheries analytics service, with fishing-zone advisories, monitoring and provenance as its named outputs.
From fishing decision to provenance
The outputs follow a sequence. Satellite and earth data are analysed, a fishing-zone advisory is produced, and the fleet can access it through the mobile application at sea. Activity in national waters can then be monitored for unregulated and unsustainable fishing, while bait-to-plate traceability gives seafood buyers a record of provenance. The source facts support that sequence without assigning an unsupported catch forecast or accuracy figure.
What the service puts in one place
Fishing fleets receive guidance toward productive waters. Authorities receive monitoring, control and tracking of unregulated activity. Seafood buyers receive quality assurance, supply-chain guarantee and full provenance. These are distinct outputs of the same satellite-data analytics capability. The named team, mobile delivery and institutional support provide the service context without changing what the product claims to deliver.
A shared fisheries information service
The fleet-facing application, national-water monitoring and seafood provenance record serve different users without becoming separate products. Fishermen use the mobile application at sea. Authorities use the analytics to monitor, control and track unregulated activity. Buyers use the bait-to-plate record for quality assurance, supply-chain guarantee and provenance. Data scientists, GIS analysts and data architects provide the specialist fisheries analysis, with support from the World Food Programme, European Space Agency and World Bank. The mobile application is the stated fleet delivery method, while the authority and buyer outputs remain analytics and records.
Why Unstrat: the difference
Unstrat is the authorised global representative and distributor for this capability. It is already in service with a track record behind it, so you are buying something that has done the job elsewhere, not funding a first attempt. You are not the test bed.
Independent, non-aligned origin, with no political exposure to any major-power ecosystem.
One accountable team from first briefing through delivery and in-region sustainment.
Backed by the UN World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank.
How it reaches you
Related capability
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Procurement & sustainment
Classification and the end-user-certificate chain are confirmed before this capability is represented to your market.
Sourced from an independent manufacturer: no major-power disclosure rules or political conditions.
A single team responsible from first briefing through delivery: not a chain of foreign primes to integrate yourself.
Lifecycle support and operator training delivered in-region, building capability that outlasts the initial deployment.
Applications it supports
Capability comparisons
Questions buyers ask
What is satellite fish detection?
It is the practice of reading ocean conditions from orbit, combining that with data collected on the water, and turning the result into advice about where fish are likely to be. The output is a fishing-zone advisory rather than an image of a school. Our service fuses data from earth and data from space and delivers the answer as a mobile application crews download and use at sea, which is why it reaches boats that will never carry a sonar suite.
See: Fish detection: outputs, delivery and backingSatellite fisheries analytics as a capability
Satellite fish detection or fish-finding sonar: which is better?
Neither replaces the other, and any supplier who says otherwise is selling. Sonar shows the school under the hull now and tells the skipper when to shoot the net: Furuno's FSV-85 MARK-2 works to a 2,000 m range scale, the Simrad SX90 MKII to 5,000 m. Advisories answer the earlier question, which is where to steam before the fuel is burned. Fleets that can afford both usually fit sonar on the large vessels and put advisories on everyone.
How much does a satellite fish detection service cost?
We do not publish a price, and neither does Furuno nor Kongsberg for their sonar. What differs is the shape of the spend. A sonar fit is capital equipment per vessel, with a hull unit Furuno lists at 370 to 390 kg with tank, a 95 kg transceiver and a yard period to install it. Ours is a subscription-style service delivered as an application, so cost tracks fleet size rather than steelwork.
See: Cost structure against a sonar capital fitDiscuss a national fisheries requirement
Is there a fishing-zone advisory app for small-scale fishermen?
That is exactly the delivery model here. The advisory arrives as a mobile application the crew downloads, with no hull penetration, no transducer and no sonar room. Compare that with the omnidirectional sonar alternative, which needs a control unit, processor, transceiver, hull unit and, in Furuno's published figures, three-phase power for the hoist. The boats that land most of the catch in developing fisheries can use the first on the day it is issued and will never carry the second.
Fisheries analytics for a national fleet rather than a single vessel
A sonar improves one boat. Advisories improve the routing decisions of every boat that has a phone, which is where fuel spend and days at sea are actually decided. The same analytics chain also carries monitoring, control and tracking of unregulated fishing across national waters, so one procurement serves the fleet and the ministry. That dual purpose is usually what makes the budget defensible.
See: Maritime domain awareness, orbit to harbourFish detection features and specifications
Can we get fish detection without installing a hull transducer?
Yes. Nothing is fitted to the boat. Kongsberg's own system list for the SX90 runs to display, processor, transceiver in a sonar room, hull unit, hoist motor, motor control unit and transducer, with a high-speed Ethernet run to the bridge. Our service asks for a phone and a download, which is the difference between a yard period and a briefing.
Fish-finding technology with no export licence conditions attached
Read the specification footnotes before the headline numbers. Kongsberg's fishery catalogue marks the extended 6,000 to 10,000 m range option on the SX90 as requiring an export licence in selected countries, which is straight dealing on their part and also the shape of the problem: the longest range is the part a foreign ministry approves. Furuno's brochure does not address export conditions at all, which is not the same as there being none. Our service comes from an independent, non-aligned source with no political exposure to a major-power ecosystem.
Which fisheries data services are backed by the UN or the European Space Agency?
Ours is. The fisheries data-science work behind this service is supported by the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. That backing is not a performance figure and we do not present it as one, but it tells a buyer the platform has been through the scrutiny those institutions apply before they fund fisheries work.
See: Institutional backing, row by rowFish detection product page
Our fleet burns fuel searching for fish. What can we buy that cuts days at sea across the whole fleet rather than one vessel?
Search time is a routing problem, and routing is decided before the boat leaves the harbour. Fishing-zone advisories guide fleets to productive waters, which cuts wasted days at sea and improves catch profitability across every vessel carrying the app, not just the ones with a sonar suite. Sonar still earns its place at the net, but it cannot tell a skipper which ground is worth the fuel. Fund the routing layer first if the fleet is large and the vessels are small.
See: Fleet economics against per-vessel sonarFish detection product page
Most of our fleet is small open boats. Will a satellite advisory service actually reach crews who will never fit sonar?
That is the fleet this was built for. The advisory is a mobile application the fishermen download and use directly at sea, so the reach is set by phone ownership rather than by yard capacity. Kongsberg and Furuno equipment sits on purse seiners and large trawlers because of the hull unit, the hoist and the power draw. If your landings come mostly from boats under a few tens of metres, a hardware programme reaches almost none of them and an advisory reaches nearly all of them.
Can one platform serve both fleet profitability and enforcement against illegal fishing, or do we need two procurements?
One chain does both here, and the dual use is deliberate. The same analytics that guide boats to productive waters also support monitoring, control and tracking of unregulated and unsustainable fishing across national waters, with bait-to-plate traceability giving seafood buyers provenance. Fisheries ministries usually find the economic case easier to fund than the enforcement case, and this lets one budget carry both. Where you need a dedicated evidence chain and port-state work, that sits on the traceability platform alongside it.
See: Fisheries traceability and enforcementMaritime domain awareness solution
What detection range and accuracy figures do you publish, and what should we ask for in writing before we commit?
We do not publish detection range, advisory spatial resolution, update cadence or forecast accuracy, and our comparison page marks those cells as not published rather than filling them. Furuno and Kongsberg publish range scales, beam widths, power draw and temperature limits, because they have a hardware datasheet culture and we have not matched it in public. Ask us in writing for advisory resolution, update cadence and the validation record behind them, and expect a document rather than a claim. Apply the same test to any analytics supplier you shortlist.
Is this an operational service or are we funding somebody's pilot study?
It is in daily use by fishing fleets, delivered as an application crews download and run at sea. The team behind it pioneered data science in fisheries and its work is supported by the UN World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. Judge that against the trial-and-report pattern common in fisheries technology, where the demonstration ends when the grant does.
We are considering fitting omnidirectional sonar across the fleet. What does that commit us to over the life of the equipment?
To capital equipment on every hull and to the vendor's support chain afterwards. Furuno publishes a processor unit of 15 kg, a transceiver of 95 kg and a hull unit of 370 or 390 kg with tank, plus 100 to 230 VAC single phase for the transceiver and three-phase power for the hoist. Kongsberg routes software updates and licences through the local dealer, who installs them, and a Simrad upgrade path involves returning a full operating sonar with a new transceiver and software. None of that is wrong, it is simply a fleet-wide steelwork and dealer commitment, and it should be compared against a service that scales by subscription.
How do we avoid a fisheries capability that a foreign government can switch off or condition later?
Look at where approvals live rather than at the brochure. Kongsberg states plainly that the longest range option on its fishery sonar needs an export licence in selected countries, so the top of the performance envelope depends on a decision taken abroad. Our fish detection service carries no such condition: independent, non-aligned origin, with one accountable team from first briefing through delivery and in-region sustainment. The review that matters then happens between the parties on the contract.
See: Export conditions and sustainment modelHow the maritime capability is assembled
Fish Detection: questions
What is Fish Detection?
Fish Detection is Unstrat's Sea (Maritime Domain) capability: Satellite-data fish detection and fishing-zone advisories from a data-science firm supported by the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. Fuses earth and space data to guide fleets to productive waters, monitor unregulated fishing and deliver bait-to-plate traceability.
How does Fish Detection work?
Fish Detection delivers its effect through Satellite-driven fish detection and fishing-zone advisories: data from earth and data from space, analysed together, Guides fishing fleets to productive waters, cutting wasted days at sea and improving catch profitability and Monitoring, control and tracking of unregulated and unsustainable fishing across national waters, capabilities matched to the requirement and confirmed under briefing rather than published.
Who provides Fish Detection?
Fish Detection is delivered by The Ocean Data Specialist, whose focus is fisheries data science & satellite fish detection. Unstrat represents The Ocean Data Specialist to government and enterprise buyers worldwide as an independent, non-aligned prime vendor.
Who uses Fish Detection?
Government and enterprise buyers acquire Fish Detection to address illegal fishing and coastal surveillance across the maritime domain, matched to the mission and accountable to them, not to a foreign vendor's government.
Why choose Fish Detection over a major-power alternative?
Fish Detection is sourced from an independent, non-aligned provider, so it carries no major-power disclosure rules, upgrade-locks or political ramifications. Concretely: backed by the UN World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. The capability is accountable to you, not to a foreign vendor's government and its release schedule.
How is Fish Detection procured, and where can it be delivered?
Fish detection from space: advisories that make fleets profitable and fisheries sustainable, with no major-power strings. Every engagement begins with a briefing, and export eligibility is confirmed per market under briefing rather than published. Where controlled capabilities are involved, the classification and end-user-certificate chain is confirmed first. Fish Detection is then sustained in-region by one accountable team from briefing through long-term operation.